How to stop Service from another activity in Android?

Question

I have 2 activities, A & B. The Service starts in B with such code:

 startService(new Intent(this, PlayerService.class));
             Intent connectionIntent = new Intent(this, PlayerService.class);
             bindService(connectionIntent, mp3PlayerServiceConnection, Context.BIND_AUTO_CREATE);

 private ServiceConnection mp3PlayerServiceConnection = new ServiceConnection() {
    @Override
    public void onServiceConnected(ComponentName arg0, IBinder binder) {
        mp3Service = ((LocalBinder) binder).getService();
        Thread t = new Thread() {
        public void run() {
        mp3Service.playSong(getApplicationContext(),url);
        }
        };
        t.start();
    }
    @Override
    public void onServiceDisconnected(ComponentName arg0) {
     }
 };

I need to have a possibility to close the service when I'm on activity A (B is closed, but music plays). How to call StopService from A onDestroy()? Need I to unbind it, if yes, how and where?

Simply putting stopService(new Intent(this,PlayerService.class)); leads to an error: Activity B has leaked Service connection ... that was originally bound here. (But B is already closed)

Answer 1

You should unbind service in B onStop(), then you can call stopService in A.

Answer 2

So to clear some things up. Services can be of two types, not necessarily mutually exclusives.

These two types are started and bounded.

A STARTED service is one started with startService() and is usually used to accomplish background operations that are somewhat independent from the flow of the activity. For ex,ample a service to download remote data may run independently from the activity that created it and then simply return the result when ready.

A started service keeps running until it stops itself.

A BOUNDED service is more like a client-server IPC pattern. For example an audio media player should be a bound service in order for the activity to be able to query the service about the state of the media player, e.g. track name, lenght...

A Bound Service lives as long as there is a component bound to it.

So, if your service is started, you should stop it from inside your service implementation with stopSelf() or stopService(). If it is bound, it stops himself when there is no more components bound to it. You unbind a service with unbindService(). Note that a service can be both a started and a bound service!

For more information, refer to this:

http://developer.android.com/guide/components/services.html

Consider also using an IntentService instead of a Service in your application, since it seems that you don't need your service to be multithread.

Answer 3

you need to Unbind the service before destroying your Activity. unbindService(myConnection);

Answer 4

Try unbindService() in your onStop()